User:AJona1992/Tejano music

Tejano music (commonly referred to as Tex-Mex music) is a music genre that originated near the Texas-Mexico border.

Etymology
The term "Tejanos" referred to individuals of Mexican descent who were born and raised in the state of Texas. The term was inclusive to Mexican Americans, although not all Mexican Americans are "Tejanos". Tejano music was created by Tejanos "to meet the musical sensibilities of other Tejanos." Tejano music is a type of border music that originated near the Rio Grande border by individuals from northern Mexican states such as Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon and the South Texan counties near the Texas-Mexico border.

The genre originated on both sides of the borders; although the genre is more commonly associated with South Texas, each region developed its own distinctive ways that aided in the development of Tejano music in the 20th century. The lower border regions became Tejano music's "historical breeding ground." and produced Bruno Villareal, Narciso Martinez, and Valerio Longoria, who originated the conjunto ensemble and corridos that were popular in Tejano communities.

It is unclear by musicologists on what constitutes Tejano music: whether the genre is accordion-based music with urbanized sounds with influences from rock and country music or an extension of Mexican music containing a mixture of conjunto derived from country music and westernized sounds. Others, such as scholar Manuel Pena, characterized Tejano as a "synthesizer-driven" genre. Author of Tejano Proud, Guadalupe San Miguel distinguishes Tejano music as a complex multifaced genre that can be characterized with "five distinct essential elements".

Precursors
Tejano music emerged from Mexican music, which itself emerged from music of Spain as well as music from Indigenous communities. The genre is also closely related to norteno music.

The introduction of the accordion (in Conjunto music) was by German and Czech settlers in South Texas in the middle of the 1800s.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, polkas, huapangos, waltzes, schottisches, and mazurkas accompanied the music of Tejanos. Since the 1940s, Tejano music drew influences from boleros, mambos, danzones, fox-trots, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, rock, country, pop, and cumbia music. While these influences were diverse, the music of the Tejanos were mostly constructed under a polka beat.

An emerging style of music called corridos, a narrative ballad that tells a story of a hero sung in a simplistic way, was instrumental in expressing and reflecting the constant conflicts of the indigenous Tejanos and the Anglo communities in South Texas. The style emerged and was developed during a time of violent change in South Texas from 1836 to the 1930s. A representative of this style was El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez, a man who single-handily fought the Anglo law and won. After the 1930s, corridos faded in popularity, it changed from having a victor mentality to being a helpless victim. The lyrics sought the sympathy for the victim from the audience and inspired the Texas-Mexican communities to fend together for the benefit of everyone instead of the older corridos where an individual became a hero to their community. In the 19th century, canciones, or traditional Mexican songs, reflected the change of Mexican culture in Texas. Much of the 19th century was dominated by canciones tipica and corridos, the former was traditionally folk music with simplistic lyrics and instruments. By the late 19th century canciones romanticas emerged as a popular subgenre for Tejanos, its compositions was a reflection of an urbanized Latin America and its attraction to European music that was imported to the country, especially Italian music. At the turn of the 20th century, canciones rancheras replaced these types of styles and became the dominant style of music enjoyed by the Tejano community. The style borrowed canciones tipica and were less political than corridos, they often reflected lovesick men and played on the "treacherous women" narrative that Mexican women were unfaithful.

As early as the 1920s, the music of the Tejanos was accordion-heavy and reflected a sensibility that was identifiable with other Tejanos, separating from the identities of traditional Mexican music. This type of genre was commonly enjoyed by the lower and middle class, at its early form it was an instrumental and danceable genre. The orquestas and grupos Tejana were enjoyed by the working class, while conjunto and Chicano country music reflected the dominance of the working class. During the post-World War II era, the music of the Tejanos began adapting to Mexican music with vocal and female duet singing. Early lyrics reflected the social clashes faced by the indigenous population and were based on a rural economy, a traditionally patriarchal culture, and the constant clashes with the Anglo population. The genre, which had now moved away from being an instrumental work, began incorporating the bajo sexto, saxophones, and trumpets to their basic accordion sounds, which became known as orquesta Tejana. Later developments of the genre included the incorporation of the organs, brass instruments, electric guitars, and keyboards. In The second half of the 20th century, the Tejano community assimilated; they were more urbanized, acculturated, held diverse occupations, were less patriarchal, and had better relations with the Anglo community, which was reflected in their lyrics.

Modern Tejano music can be traced back to styles popularized by orquestas and grupos Tejanos of the 1960s and 1970s.

Origins
Tejano as music and culture formed during the 1960s in South Texan counties. San Antonio became the epicenter of promotion for the genre, according to archivist Sam Sungia, the region included the highest per capita of composers and songwriters in Texas. The creative aspect of Tejano music was contributed to Corpus Christi and Alice; Ideal Records, which was one of the most influential recording companies in the area, was erected in Alice, while Corpus Christi expanded on the Tejano music recording industry. Corpus Christi was home to Freddie Records and Hacienda Records, both of which were instrumental in the development of Tejano music during the 1970s and 1980s.

Artists who recorded with the aforementioned record labels during its early period included Lydia Mendoza, sister-duo Carmen y Laura, Beto Villa, Isidro Lopez, Tony de la Rosa, Conjunto Bernal, Los Relampagos del Norte, Ramon Ayala, Los Fabulosos Cuatro, Carlos Guzman, Laura Canales, Sunny Ozuna, record producer Freddie Martinez, and Agustin Ramirez.

Isidro Lopez created a musical fusion between mariachi and Tejano music, which he called "Texachi". In the 1960s and 1970s, Conjunto Bernal, the Royal Jesters, and Los Dinos incorporated three and four-part harmony. In the 1970s, Roberto Pulido created a musical blend of orquesta and conjunto, creating a subgenre called progressive conjunto. In 1989, Emilio Navaira added synthesizers into progressive conjunto. Chicano country was created by Country Roland in the 1970s when he combined American country with Mexican music.

La Mafia and La Sombra recorded and performed Tejano music in Chicago and Houston, respectively. They were no longer living in South Texas.

Introduction of instruments
Beto Villa and Isidro Lopez incorporated the use of saxophones and trumpets into their repertoire as well as other instruments associated with orquestas of America and Latin America. In the 1960s and 1970s, other performers such as Little Joe, Sunny Ozuna, and Freddie Martinez also included the saxophones and trumpets but added organs and electric guitars to their basic sound. Their introduction of these instruments was not influenced by orquestas of the time as was the case with Villa and Lopez, but instead were associated with rock and soul performers. The use of violins, steel drums, and vocal singing that resembles country music, were incorporated by a few groups in the 1960s including Country Roland and his son Country Roland, Jr. While these mixtures became a music stable in Tejano, other performers such as Mazz, Selena, and La Mafia incorporated the use of keyboards during the 1980s. Despite the vast diversity of these instruments, Tejano performers continued to record traditional Mexican music.

Diversifcation and innovation
Performers of Tejano music are noted for their diversity in terms of incorporating other music styles into their basic sound. These performers often recorded a diverse collection of songs that closely resembled other communities, such as rock and roll and American pop, but retained the sensibilities of Tejano music so that it would appeal to Tejanos. Other performers often "Tejanoized" popular recordings for their followers. One such example includes Esteban Jordan's recording of country singer Buck Owens' 1964 single "Together Again", in which Jordan added the accordion so that it would be played in Tejano nightclubs. Mingo Saldivar reinvented Johnny Cash's 1963 single "Ring of Fire" into a bilingual ranchera song, while Priscila y Sus Balas de Plata transformed the disco song "I Will Survive" into a cumbia recording. Mexican music has also been "Tejanoized", including La Diferencia's rearrangement of Juan Gabriel's single "Querida" into a ranchera.

1985–1995: Golden age Tejano music
Tejano music's "golden age" (or "the Tejano explosion") is a name given to a period in mainstream Tejano music, produced between 1985 and 1995. Other dates for the genre's golden age include the 1990s, 1990–1995, etc. Bob Grever's Cara Records, called the "motown of Tejano", Freddie Martinez's Freddie Records,, and Manny Guerra's GP Productions, were early templates of Tejano music's mainstream era. The golden age of Tejano music began with the interest from beer companies and major recording labels such as Sony Discos, BMG, and EMI Latin spending millions on recording contracts and endorsement deals in the mid-1980s, or in 1990. Beginning in 1990, Tejano music's growth exploded, as journalist Ramiro Burr put it as "a subborn brushfire spread over the horizon", the genre coverted radio stations into playing Tejano music. This garnered the attention of record labels across the United States who were eager to expand their current rosters. In 1991, Warner Nashville created Warner Discos specifically for Tejano artists crossing over into country music while Arista Nashville erected Artista Texas with the same objective. Other labels such as PolyGram Latino and WEA Latino began deliberations on opening operations to exclusively sign Tejano acts, while Fonovisa began signing Tejano performers. These incentives helped expanded performers' fanbases beyond Texas and the southwest, it also brought the genre to territories unfamiliar with the genre. The golden age is generally considered to have ended on March 31, 1995, when Selena was shot and killed by her friend and former manager of her boutiques.

In the mid-1980s, La Mafia, a sextet group headed by Oscar de la Rosa, expanded the touring availabilities of Tejano performers into Miami, Florida and New York City. The band reimagined their basic sounds; they incorporated slower tempos and changed their style to cumbia, ballads, and techno adding synthesizer and heavy basslines to their music. La Mafia were reluctant to record Tejano music they replicated, they found it to be repetitive and added keyboards that were unheard of in the industry. This shift in style was featured in their 1990 album Enter the Future. The group continued experimenting with other genres on their followup Estas Tocando Fuego (1991), which led them to tour Mexico, a market that historically has been unsuccessful for Tejano performers. The album led the US Billboard Regional Mexican Albums chart for 20 consecutive weeks, and sold over a million copies. Sales for Tejano albums were generally limited to 50,000 units, and after 1990, this threshold was expanded to 400-500,000 units. La Mafia continued to break attendance records, while their shows included attractions similar to performances shown on MTV.

Accordionist David Lee Garza received a gold certification for the first time for his 1992 album 1392. In 1989, Emilio Navaira parted with David Lee Garza's band and began performing progressive conjunto and quickly became a dominating artist in Tejano music. Navaira recorded traditional compositions of polkas and rancheras, though he recorded other genres such as country music. Later in his career, Navaira recorded more rock-influenced tracks. In 1991, Stuart Dill signed Navaira as one of his company's roster of country singers. Navaira became the first Tejano artist to headline the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo in 1994 and performed at two sold-out concerts at the San Antonio Freeman Coliseum that same year. In 1994, the singer signed with Nashville's Liberty Records and along with Rick Trevino signed booking deals with William Morris's Nashville office in an effort to maximize the potential of bookings for Tejano artists in the city. Around this time, Navaira dropped his last name and became only known as Emilio. He was referred to as "the King of Tejano" and was promoted in Nashville as the Tejano George Strait, while his dance moves were called "The Emilio Shuffle". Emilio's country debut album, Life is Good (1995), sold 500,000 copies in the United States. One of its singles, "It's Not the End of the World", peaked at number 27 on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Navaira became mainstream country music's possible introduction into the Hispanic music market, CMT heavily promoted Navaira as part of its expansion into Latin America. Aside from music, Navaira introduced and popularized country music attire into the Tejano music scene; Navaira's country attire appeared more modern than his predecessors who wore "old-fashioned" versions of this style.

Starting in 1982, 10-year-old Selena began performing professionally with her Los Dinos band which consisted of her brother and songwriter-producer A.B. Quintanilla and her sister and drummer of the group Suzette Quintanilla. The group was often dismissed by promoters because of the members' ages and were told that they would not amount to any success in the Tejano market because they were fronted by a woman. Historically, women were unsuccessful and were not considered heavyweights in the genre that has been dominated by men, Selena was often denied access to venues because of this long-standing belief. In 1989, Selena signed with EMI Latin with hopes of recording an English-language album in the future. Her self-titled debut album outperformed Selena's female contemporaries, her Ven Conmigo (1990) album became the first recording by a woman in the Tejano market to receive a gold certification, while her followup Entre a Mi Mundo (1992) became her "breakthrough album". Entre a Mi Mundo and its single "Como la Flor" allowed Selena to tour Mexico, the album became the first recording by a female Tejano act to sell over 300,000 units. It dethroned La Mafia's Estas Tocando Fuego and remained atop the US Billboard Regional Mexican Albums chart for eight consecutive months. After becoming the first Tejano woman to receive a Grammy Award for Best Mexican/American Album for her Live! (1993) album, Selena signed a crossover deal with SBK Records. In 1994, Selena released Amor Prohibido, the album peaked at number one on the US Billboard Top Latin Albums and displaced Gloria Estefan from the top spot and entered the Billboard 200 chart, becoming the first Tejano album to do so. Amor Prohibido is credited with catapulting Tejano music into mainstream success resulting in sales to listeners previously unfamiliar with the genre and popularized Tejano music among a younger and wider audience than at any other time in the genre's history. After the album's release, Selena was considered "bigger than Tejano itself", and was credited for tearing down barriers in the Latin music market. The album spawned four number-one singles, "Amor Prohibido", "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom", "No Me Queda Mas", and "Fotos y Recuerdos". Mario Tarradell of The Dallas Morning News wrote that the singles from Amor Prohibido elevated Selena to success on Latin radio whose promoters had not previously taken the singer seriously.

By 1994, Tejano acts were effortless selling 100,000 units of their albums, while La Mafia and Selena were the two most-commercially successful Tejano artists. Selena's music led the genre's 1990s revival and made it marketable for the first time. Tejano music is believed by Jose Behar to have hit Mexico "like an atomic bomb" by 1994.

1995–2000: Decline in popularity
The album was considered one of the first Latin recordings that were enjoyed in the United States during the 1990s Latin explosion, a period known as the golden age of Latin music which was fueled by the singer's death in 1995.

At the time of Selena's death, 52% of all Latin music sales were generated by regional Mexican music; most of this was Tejano, which had become one of the most popular Latin music genres.

In 1996, EMI Latin is the leader in sales of Tejano albums. At least 10 artists are selling platinum records (100,000). Newcomers in this era include, Pete Astudillo, Jennifer Pena, Bobby Pulido, etc.

Staganat forecasters, still one of the "most robust subgenres" on the market.

Oversaturation of promoters, and lack of new artists breaking into the market in favor of veterans.

The live market is dead by August 1996, imprint labels begin suffering.